Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday gave the Centre two weeks time to file its response on a petition seeking direction to consult Chief Minister before appointing the Governor.

A division bench comprising Justice Uma Nath Singh and
Justice Virendra Kumar Dixit while hearing the petition filed
by a local lawyer Ashok Pandey gave the central government
counsel two weeks time for seeking instructions.The court fixed April 16 as the next date of hearing.

Earlier, in his writ petition Pandey had said that the
term of present Governor B L Joshi was due to expire in April
2012, therefore before appointing his successor the CM of
the state should be consulted.

The petition said that issue of appointment and removal
of the Governor was between the President and the Prime
Minister and there was no role of the Home Ministry.

He said that the Governor should be appointed after
consulting the CM, which at present was not being done.